It's up to parents to enforce a ban on violent video games

Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesThough the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California ban on selling violent video games to minors, Rutgers psychology professor Paul Boxer urges parents to ban their children from playing them.

By Paul Boxer

A few years ago, on Long Island, six teenagers were arrested after a crime spree involving break-ins, a violent mugging and a carjacking attempt.
According to what the teens told authorities, they had been trying to live out the life of Niko Belic. Ever heard of him? He is the protagonist in the wildly popular video game “Grand Theft Auto IV.”

What the teens did represents one of the worst-case scenarios imagined by those who advocate for government to limit the sale of violent video games to minors. Fortunately, such scenarios are very few and very far between. And Monday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision preventing the state of California from instituting a ban on the sale of such games to minors. The decision was steeped in legal precedent concerning free speech and censorship. But make no mistake: The Supreme Court’s decision in no way negates or devalues the decades of scientific research that have been conducted demonstrating that the consumption of violent media leads to increases in aggressive and anti-social behavior.

High-profile events such as teenagers getting inspired by the actions of a violent video game character can be tragic, but they also distract from the large body of knowledge that has accumulated on the impact of violent media on children. Since the early 1970s, scientists have observed very clear, frequently replicated and strikingly robust effects. In experimental studies, children who view violent television shows or films — or who play violent video games — are significantly more likely to behave aggressively in comparison to children who view nonviolent television shows or films, or who play nonviolent video games. In long-term studies, individuals who consume violent media during childhood end up more aggressive as adults, in comparison with peers who consume nonviolent media during childhood. The studies that have produced such findings now number in the hundreds. The effects have been seen in children from urban areas, as well as suburban and rural areas; in the United States, as well as many other Western and non-Western nations.

As policy statements from organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association have made clear, violent media represents a real and compelling risk to the behavioral and mental health of children and adolescents. In fact, research studies have yielded the conclusion that the effect of violent media consumption on aggressive behavior is in the same ballpark statistically as the effect of smoking on lung cancer, the effect of lead exposure on children’s intellectual development and the effect of asbestos on laryngeal cancer.

A common refrain I hear among students when I teach this topic is: “I play violent video games all the time and I’ve never shot anybody!” It is indeed true that lots of people play violent video games, but only a few commit violent crimes. The reason for this is that violence is the result of many different things that public health researchers call “risk factors,” and these run the gamut from violent media use to harsh parenting experiences to crime-filled neighborhoods to intense anger and stress.

Violent acts are the result of multiple risk factors converging in an individual. And, thankfully, most people who consume violent media do not possess so many risk factors. As research that my team and others have reported, violent media — like all those other risk factors — is just one among many elements that can lead children to engage in aggressive and, ultimately, delinquent or criminal behavior.

Yet it is one risk factor over which parents can exert significant control. Because the Supreme Court has upheld key aspects of the First Amendment in its decision to void the California ban, the government will likely not be able to control your children’s access to violent video games any time soon. But as a psychologist who has conducted research on the issue, and as a parent who worries about my own children’s exposure to violent media, I implore you: Forget about what the Supreme Court might say about children’s right to buy violent video games. Listen to what scientists have discovered about what violent media does to children — and institute your own ban.

Paul Boxer is an associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University. He conducts research on the development of anti-social behavior and was a signer of the amicus brief presented to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of California’s ban on violent video game sales to minors.